"A slave plantation," wood engraving from the 1834 book, Picture of
Slavery in the United States. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division,
LC-USZ62-117931.

Marcellus Duval

Duval's interests were not just ideological. Within a year of his arrival, he was rumored to own illegally captured Black Seminoles on his plantation in Van Buren, Arkansas. It later became known that he and his brother secretly contracted with Indians to secure title to over 260 of the maroons. In exchange, the Duval brothers were slated to receive one-third of the blacks --
a potentially huge economic windfall.